


Dragon Quest VIII: The Forgotten Chapter

by Mearad



Category: Dragon Quest Series, Dragon Quest VIII
Genre: Acceptance, Child Abandonment, Child Hero (Dragon Quest VIII, Child!Eight (Dragon Quest VIII), Childhood Memories, Crying, Family Feels, Forgotten Past, Friendship, Gen, Innocence, Loneliness, Tragedy, yearning for love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-04
Updated: 2019-04-04
Packaged: 2020-01-04 17:52:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18348695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mearad/pseuds/Mearad
Summary: Isn't it interesting, in Chen Mui's story about Xia and Eltrio, this is what was said:“The child’s memory would be sealed away, and he would be banished from the Sanctuary forever. Needless to say, by this time Chen Mui had changed his mind.”Now, add this with the fact it took "Several Years" for them to come to a decision, and bam, we get a story! Mine is told with a Female Hero.(Because ultimately, it took time for Chen Mui to love his granddaughter)





	Dragon Quest VIII: The Forgotten Chapter

“The child’s memory would be sealed away, and she would be banished from the Sanctuary forever. Needless to say, by this time Chen Mui had changed his mind.”  
Because ultimately, it took time for Chen Mui to love his granddaughter.

Enjoy~

# The Forgotten Chapter

It wasn’t instant love Chen Mui held for his grandchild.  
There was a time when he, like every other Dragovian, was dead set against Xia giving birth –keeping the baby. There was a time that he too was against the half-human, half-dragovian child being born, more so the child being born from his own daughter. There was a time he utterly refused to even look at the child after Xia died from sorrow and depression and then ultimately the strain of childbirth. It ended her life swiftly.  
_…this is the time before Chen Mui accepted Eight as she is, thinking of her as nothing but the accidental offspring from a union that should never have happened._  
________________________________________  
-Chapter 1-  
The little girl lay on her stomach, drawing little swiggles on the paper in front of her. She was in mummy’s bedroom because it always made her feel closer to mummy.  
She paused to admire her drawing, giggling happily at the super-amazing drawing of herself and mummy and quiet grandpa holding hands together!  
…she paused suddenly. Grandpa didn’t really seem the type to hold hands. He was always quiet and stared a lot, especially at her when he thought she wasn’t looking. Mostly it was Jie Leng (grandpa’s attendant) who took care of her. But even then, she was mostly left to herself because Jie Leng had to work! It was boring a lot of the time by herself.  
Besides, she didn’t really like going outside to play. Everyone else stared at her too.  
“Eight, Chen Mui is home.”  
“Jie Leng!” she smiled happily, getting up and nearly tripping over her own clumsy attempts to get closer to the only person who she saw often (and maybe she wanted to show grandpa her drawing as quickly as possible too!). “Can you read me a story after?! Please?!”  
Jie Leng’s smile wavered and became almost fixed as he replied. “Sorry Eight but I have to work.”  
“…Oh.” She said simply and this was probably the first time Eight really felt the twist in her stomach.  
_Because why was he lying to her?_  
________________________________________  
Eight is delighted when grandpa Chen Mui tells her they are going outside the house the next day. She happily toddles after her rather short grandpa and looks eagerly around the Dragovian Sanctuary. Unlike all the other times she goes out, this time she is allowed to walk passed the overarch (which had always been a no-no before – she might get lost by herself). This was the first time she was going to see the rest of the village beyond the front of grandpa’s house! Yay!  
“Stay close, Eight.” Chen Mui says and Eight wants to smile but for some reason grandpa sounds so… cold... right now and so she nods unsurely, wondering if she’d done something wrong.  
She smiles when she sees people staring at her but hurt only takes its place when she is met with scowls or people immediately looking away.  
Nobody smiles at her.  
Unease claws at her and she looks up at grandpa who is unaware of her plight.  
She sees a boy holding his mummy’s hand and Eight thinks if grandpa holds her hand, she will feel better too. Seeing as mummy isn’t here, grandpa won’t mind, right?  
Her eyes flicker to his hand but the second she reaches out to grab his hand, he tenses and all but yanks his fingers away. She stops abruptly, clear hurt on her face and Chen Mui scowls at her, opening his mouth to say something before his eyes flicker and he shuts his mouth again.  
He looks away and continues walking and Eight stares after him, a squeezing feeling almost suffocating her. After a few seconds of realising grandpa was going to leave her behind if she didn’t move, Eight once again toddles to catch up. The eyes of everyone staring or glaring at Eight make her head feel heavy and the twisting, nervous feeling inside her is making her really, REALLY uncomfortable.  
_But what did I do wrong?_  
Her head is bowed the whole walk to the building where the Council of Elders gather. She doesn’t understand why she had to stay there and hear all the arguing about something called a human but for some reason, the heavy feeling won’t go away.  
It is only later that evening, when she overhears Jie Leng and grandpa talking about Xia (that’s her mummy’s name!) that Eight discovers mummy died on this date three years ago.  
She wonders if that has to do with the yelling today.  
Eight realises that grandpa is probably really upset about losing Eight’s mommy and so she resolves to draw a whole bunch of drawings for him to make him feel better. Eight misses mummy too but she still has grandpa and even Jie Leng so she’s not lonely!  
She has to show grandpa that they’ve still got each other.  
________________________________________  
Eight is four when she learns that she is meant to have a daddy too. She has never had a daddy before and mummy isn’t here either but Eight at least knows about mummy. Why hadn’t she ever been told about daddy? She didn’t even know what a daddy was before today!  
She also learns that day about the differences between herself and grandpa. Grandpa and everyone else where able to change into dragons. Grandpa even showed her!  
…But she’d never be able to do it because she was only half-Dragovian. Apparently, her daddy was a human and a human looked similar to them, only with round ears instead of pointed.  
…and they couldn’t transform into dragons.  
…Huh.  
For the next few months, Eight found herself touching her ears and marvelling that she had round ears instead of the normal pointy scaled ends like everyone else.  
She pouted.  
_Now I’ve got to fix all the drawings that I did for grandpa! I didn’t know I had round ears!_  
She forgets all about daddy, right now satisfied with what she’s learnt.  
________________________________________  
She is five when she really starts to ask questions. She has decided she doesn’t like going outside at all because she can always feel people’s eyes on her.  
It makes her feel bad. Unwelcome.  
But that doesn’t stop her sometimes peeking out the window or standing on the top floor and watching the kids around her age who play together only to go home when their mummy or daddy pick them up.  
It is then that Eight wonders why her daddy doesn’t pick her up and when she asks grandpa Chen Mui, she cries when he tells her humans aren’t allowed in the Dragovian Sanctuary and her daddy was dead.  
Both mummy and daddy were dead? She’d never see any of them?!  
She asks for a photo of daddy but grandpa scowls and walks away, leaving her crying there. Jie Leng works around her, remaining silent and Eight doesn’t understand why the twisting feeling inside her is only growing each day but it hurtshurtshurts.  
“Go to bed, Eight.”  
Eight does what she’s told. She thinks her daddy did something wrong for grandpa to be so angry talking about him.  
________________________________________  
A week later she musters up her courage to talk to the other kids. Grandpa isn’t talking to her since their talk about daddy and Jie Leng avoids her, always saying he is busy. But he is always saying he is busy so she is sadder about grandpa ignoring her than Jie Leng.  
Eight still decides she wants to play with somebody else and it’s not like she can’t play outside in her own village, right?  
“You’re a human! Father says we shouldn’t play with humans! You’re not supposed to be here! Go away!”  
It is the first time she remains silent when grandpa gets home that day, deciding to stay in her room and not bother talking to grandpa.  
She is too hurt and suddenly unsure of her own position in the Dragovian Sanctuary.  
Daddy was a human and grandpa doesn’t like daddy. Humans can’t come in the village and aren’t supposed talk to the Dragovians. But… If Eight looks like a human and IS half-human, does that mean she’s not supposed to be here either?  
Will they send her away too? Because she’s human?  
…Does that mean grandpa doesn’t love her? And Jie Leng? Is that why everybody stares or scowls at her?  
Is she bad because she’s a human?  
When Chen Mui braces himself for his hyperactive granddaughter to bound down the stairs to give him an unnecessary hug like always, the dragovian elder can’t explain the sudden disappointment and nervousness in his chest when Eight doesn’t appear for the rest of the night.  
He finds her asleep on Xia’s bed and once again, age old sorrow fills him.  
He decides to leave the room, ignoring his first thought to wake his granddaughter and ask what was wrong.  
________________________________________  
It is a few more weeks before Eight musters up the courage to show grandpa one of her drawings, feeling far too alone and in heart-pain (as she calls the twisting feeling) to care that grandpa was avoiding her.  
She wants _somebody_ to talk to her and she really hopes grandpa doesn’t hate her and its all her imagination.  
Her drawings are super-dooper amazing cause’ she spends so long by herself (and so her skills got better and better!) and she can’t describe the amount of joy she felt when grandpa actually smiled! She never _knew_ grandpa could smile!  
He does love her, right?  
She decides she’ll show grandpa Chen Mui the rest of her drawings soon. Her birthday’s coming up so Eight knows for sure grandpa will be with her all day then. She knows he will love the other drawings too.  
________________________________________  
Chen Mui smiles because his granddaughter’s drawing is horrendous but unexplainably reminds him of when he was a young boy showing his own parents drawings. When he had went through the box of photos with Xia, why they laughed and… and…  
…and…  
The drawing slowly falls into the bin as his shoulders shake with grief.  
________________________________________  
Three days later Eight freezes when she sees what remains of her now rubbish and food stained hard-worked drawing. She pulls it out and stares for a few seconds, numb with disbelief. For some reason her eyes are wet but she is not crying like she normally does when she trips and falls down or when she misses mummy. There is not crying like when she has had a bad dream or when she doesn’t get a snack she wanted.  
For some reason, Eight struggles to breathe through the ache in her chest, choked sounds are escaping her and the hurting is way above the heart-pain she normally feels. Did her heart burst? Is she dying? What was wrong with her?  
Another thought: would anyone _care?_  
That evening she hides all her drawings she had created under her bed, repeating words she didn’t believe.  
Grandpa probably didn’t mean to throw it away, right? (the house is still messy and it probably slipped in the bin or something). One day Eight would show him the rest, just… not right now. Maybe when the house was tidied up a bit, maybe not before dinner either).  
That way grandpa wouldn’t accidently throw it away again, right?  
_**Right?!**_  
The twisting feeling digs into her very soul.  
She feels so alone.  
_…I’m a human, after all…_  
________________________________________  
“Master Chen Mui! Are you okay?!”  
Eight jumps, having been dozing on the top steps of the staircase leading to mummy’s room. Grandpa promised he would visit her when he got home in the evening. Eight had finally gathered what feeble courage remained and decided she should show grandpa Chen Mui the rest of the drawings. The house was now clean because Eight had even helped Jie Leng clean everything.  
“Jie Leng… I’m fine. Just tired.”  
“…Xia wouldn’t want you like this.” Jie said hesitantly but grandpa only sighed.  
Eight edged closer but still out of sight, hiding on the bottom stair. Was grandpa okay? And what wouldn’t mummy want?  
“I should have kept a closer eye on her.” Grandpa said heavily. “It’s my fault she fell in love with the human. Everything that’s happened… If only I’d protected her, none of this would have happened and Xia would still be with us.”  
“…” Eight blinks from the stairway (is this pain normal? It hurts, why – she didn’t fall over, _**why?!**_ )  
She goes to bed and pretends to be asleep when Chen Mui comes to finally speak to her... as he reluctantly promised earlier for her birthday.  
The disappointment weights heavily on her when grandpa doesn’t try to wake her to talk as promised. She had even made him promise to.  
But the acceptance that this would probably happen also weights heavily on her. She _**knew**_ if he could – that grandpa would not want to talk to her.  
_Grandpa… he… he doesn’t…_  
Eight had even told Grandpa it was really important they speak tonight. He broke his promise.  
Without a second thought.  
_…he doesn’t really love me, does he?_  
________________________________________  
She thinks about it some more and finally understands. Humans and Dragovians weren’t _**meant**_ to be together. It is why humans aren’t in the Sanctuary. Grandpa knows that mummy and daddy should never had happened. … _ **Eight**_ herself should never have happened.  
Grandpa didn’t want her to be born. He wanted to prevent it and if he could go back, he would. He said so, he did!  
If he could prevent Eight existing, Grandpa would.  
…He wished it.  
_He… grandpa doesn’t want me to exist._  
She stared down at her hands, so overwhelmed with pain that she could barely swallow or see through the tears in her eyes, her vision blurry.  
_Nobody here wants me to exist.  
Grandpa doesn’t love me. _  
_**...Nobody does.**_  
________________________________________  
She asks Jie Leng what it means to “exist”.  
He tells her it means to be alive.  
_I…I’m alive, aren’t I? So… somebody must’ve wanted me, right?_  
The thought of mummy suddenly springs to mind and Eight misses her all over again because what would her life have been like if somebody… _anybody_ actually wanted her? …Loved her?  
________________________________________  
She is nearing six when she gets her first friend. He is eleven years old, with black hair and blue eyes (which is unusual for Dragovians but the boy said his mommy came from another Dragovian clan in the east).  
“I’m Solo.” He holds out his hand and she stares at it and then his face, as if searching for the usual mean look or wariness in everybody’s eyes. He snorts and waves his hand in front of her again. “Come on, you’re meant to shake it, you know!”  
She grabs his hand, biting her lip. Would he make fun of her? Scowl at her? “…I’m Eight…”  
“I know.” He grinned as they let go. “Everybody knows who you are. Mom and dad tell me to stay away from you every day I go outside!”  
She flinches and he tilts his head.  
“But up close, you’re kinda’ cute. Why don’t they want me to talk to you, I wonder?”  
“I…” the truth of his words dig into her and Eight tries to hide the hurt that everyone in the Dragovian Sanctuary really _doesn’t_ want her here. “…I don’t think I should be here.”  
Solo blinked, frowning thoughtfully. “…No, don’t worry about it. Just because my parents said not to play with you doesn’t mean we can’t talk, right? We’re not breaking any rules.”  
She shook her head. “No, I mean… I’m not meant to exist.”  
“…” Solo stares puzzled at her words but Eight doesn’t notice, looking at the ground sadly.  
“I’m… half human, you know.”  
“…So?” Solo asked and Eight opened her mouth to reply when…  
“…I… I don’t know.” She said lamely. “I just… humans aren’t meant to exist here.”  
“…But you do.” He pointed out. “So, that means they _do_ exist here. Besides, I heard that there is a human grave just outside the Sanctuary! So, humans _have_ come here before!”  
“Really?!” Eight couldn’t help but be excited.  
“Yeah… I haven’t met any face to face but being human shouldn’t matter, right? Your mommy was a Dragovian so you are one of us.” Solo said simply.  
“…Okay.” She gave a small timid smile.  
“Hehe! That’s a cute smile! You’re really adorable, Eight!”  
________________________________________  
Over the next few weeks, Solo and her become fast friends. He tells her all different types of stories his parents read him and they often read together (well, Solo reads to her anyway). They share secret smiles when they are out in the open because nobody has found out about their friendship. They find it somewhat like a special secret that only the two of them know – that connects them.  
Eight hasn’t smiled this much in… forever, really.  
She’s never had a friend before.  
Solo asks her all types of questions out of curiosity and at times, Solo also tells her about the human who died a few years ago. He found out recently that it was Eight’s daddy who was buried there. He tells her his name was Eltrio (and either Eight forgot his name or was never told because she latches onto the name fiercely).  
The human was buried alone and the person who buried him was Eight’s mother. Apparently, nobody else helped her. If she had never been told by Solo, Eight would never have known that that there was any humans near the Sanctuary to begin with.  
“Will I be buried out in the wilderness too? Because I’m human?”  
Solo looks startled and troubled at her question and it shows on his face even though he tries and reassures her. “O-Of course not! Y-You’re one of us!”  
“…Yeah.” The words are forced out and looking at Solo, she knows he doesn’t believe his own words either.  
He frowns stubbornly and grabs her hand. “I’ll make sure they bury you with us! Your mommy was a Dragovian and you have Dragovian blood running through you! We are family, even if only half of it is Dragovian!”  
She doubts Solo’s words but feels grateful to him all the same. “Yeah… Okay.”  
________________________________________  
Solo buys her a toy dragon as a sixth birthday present and tells her that Eight has Xia’s eyes. He got her the dragon to remember that she has a Dragovian mummy who gave birth to her. Even if she herself can’t transform into a dragon, she is one of them.  
“You can be my little sister from now on, okay? I’ll protect you!”  
Eight truly believes that she is meant to exist because she has a mummy who wanted her and a brother called Solo who promised to protect her.  
Eight feels happier than she had in ages.  
Is this what joy feels like? To be wanted? To be loved by somebody?  
________________________________________  
She comes home a few weeks later, once again having spent the whole day playing joyfully with big brother Solo and frowns when she realises her drawing book has been moved from her bed. She pins it down to forgetting she had moved it but in reality, Chen Mui had looked at it, a sad smile on his face.  
Somehow, the drawings make him feel a bit closer to his granddaughter and he decides he should at least try to honour Xia’s decision. Whether he liked it or not, Eight was now in his care and she was Xia’s child. He should make an effort to know her.  
He grimaces.  
Even _if_ she reminds him of everything he lost.  
________________________________________  
For the first time in her six (and a month) years of life, Eight is being told a bedtime story for the first time. She is enraptured with her grandpa’s drawings and she held onto every word as she learns how mummy had to come back to the Sanctuary because it was her home. Daddy followed her but died, the only thing mummy having left of him was the ring.  
She holds the ring tightly all night, feeling super-closer to her parents.  
…grandpa had never talked about daddy in a good light before. Maybe grandpa is forgiving daddy for being human now?  
________________________________________  
Grandpa once again takes her to the building where the Council Elders talk. This time there is the important person called the Dragovian Lord who she has never seen. She doesn’t know why he’s called that (it’s such a long sounding name!) but decides to not point it out because she could hurt his feelings.  
“The human shouldn’t be here! She’s not one of us!”  
Eight stiffens and suddenly her boredom vanishes, replaced with stone-hard realisation that they were talking about her. She is the only human in the Sanctuary, after all.  
She pretends not to be affected nor listening to everything but grandpa has noticed when she clenches her fists when the suggestion of being banished is brought up.  
_They… want to send me away? They are really going to…?_  
They were going to throw her away...?  
“That’s just too cruel! She’s a child!” Grandpa raised his voice and everyone went quiet.  
Eight couldn’t believe what she was hearing. _Grandpa… wants me to stay?_  
“Since when have you been feeling this way, Chen Mui? She doesn’t belong here. You know that more than anyone! Look what happened to your daughter!” one of the elder ladies shouted.  
“I…” Chen Mui hesitated and Eight lowered her eyes.  
_That’s right… Because I exist, because of humans… mommy died. Did… did I kill mommy?_  
From then on, grandpa never takes her to any more of the meetings.  
But despite Grandpa’s earlier hesitance to deny the elder’s words, Eight feels like grandpa is on her side for the first time. Because for the first time in her life, Grandpa holds her hand as they walk home.  
She was right.  
Holding hands is every bit as comforting as she imagined.  
________________________________________  
“You like this cheese too?”  
Eight doesn’t know why grandpa is surprised. She lives with him, after all! They eat cheese nearly every day! But then she remembers he is always busy talking to the council elders and before this last week, he was always busy or ignoring her.  
She is never told but she is sure Grandpa is fighting against Eight being banished from the Sanctuary.  
She worries a bit but believes her grandpa will protect her.  
He is her grandpa, after all.  
Solo sits next to her (he is here secretly, of course) eating lunch with her after meeting grandpa and Jie Leng for the first time.  
“Your favourites are the exact same cheeses as me…” Grandpa Chen Mui murmurs and the newly-turned thirteen-year-old agrees with his words, patting Eight on the head when she pouts.  
“Of course I do…” she ‘hmphs’. “Grandpa gets it a lot so I eat it all the time too!”  
Grandpa seems shocked and for some reason, his face looks grieved and sad as he chuckles lightly. “Grandpa will remember to get you your favourite for your seventh birthday too, Eight.”  
“R-Really?! W-We’ll spend the day together?!” Eight is so shocked and elated that she misses the impact her words have on her grandpa.  
Chen Mui wonders why it’s taken him this long to realise he has been a poor example of a grandfather. _Eight doesn’t even expect me to spend time with her on her birthday… Just what type of grandfather have I been for my own child’s daughter to think this way?_  
He promises himself he’ll never forget Eight’s love for the soft cheese nor her excitement over being told bedtime stories which had lots of pictures in the books.  
He decides to draw the pictures for her favourite bedtime story that never seemed to bore her, the history between Xia and the human-no… Eltrio.  
________________________________________  
Solo isn’t stupid.  
He sees the looks everyone gives Eight. He sees their expressions when she is brought up in conversation. He sees where the ‘solution’ to the human problem is heading.  
He sees it and he hates it. He _fears_ it.  
Every day, the anger and injustice Solo feels only grows when he sees the wavering expression on Eight’s face when Mr. Chen Mui comes back even more exhausted and burdened. The anger grows when Eight starts to ask to play inside her house now, too afraid she and him will get caught by somebody and they’ll send her away that much sooner. That she might lose Solo – her only friend in the world. The anger only grows when his own parents wonder why he is so angry at everyone – _that they don’t **understand** how cruel they are being._  
“Hey Solo…?” Eight mumbled, half asleep as she leaned on him.  
The book he had been reading her still lay in her lap. He looks at her and grins slightly, his angry thoughts melting away at her expression. The now-eight-year-old looks adorable half-asleep.  
His cute little sister.  
“I think I’m going to not exist anymore.”  
He freezes.  
She notices. “…Solo?”  
He is older now and so understands why her first words back when they met seemed to unsettle him so. _Don’t tell me… Are the Clan really going to kill…?_  
“What do you mean, Eight?” he asks, trying to keep his voice neutral. He can’t scare his little sister, after all.  
“Grandpa told me.” She admitted softly. “They are going to erase my memory. I won’t remember anything. I… I won’t be me anymore. They’re going to throw me away… and leave nothing left. I’ll be gone and I’ll never come back.”  
She looks so shattered that Solo wants nothing more than to protect her and never let anybody else hurt her again. Eight was _his_ sister.  
“Come on.” He tugs on her hand and tells her to pack some clothes. They were ‘going on a trip that her grandpa organised’. He can’t help the half-smile when she immediately goes to get her toy dragon first as well as the storybook on her parents’ history. She puts it in a small backpack that she mostly uses to carry her drawing pencils in (because she loved nothing more than to draw when she was alone).  
“Solo? Where _are_ we going to explore?” She is curious and her eyes are full of trust. She doesn’t suspect at all that Solo is really running away with her so their family can never hurt her again.  
“…I’m not sure.” He scowls before smiling and kneeling in front of Eight. “I’ll take care of you though. I won’t let them erase your memory. You’ll **never** forget about me and you’ll **never** be thrown away into the human world. But for now, we’re going on a trip. Your grandpa’s convincing the council to let go of their decision right now so don’t panic.”  
He hates bringing it up but right now he needs to make sure she will try her hardest to be normal. He is old enough now (fourteen years old is plenty old enough) to care for the both of them and he’ll make sure they can grow up away from the rest of the Clan.  
He feels the pang of guilt for abandoning his parents but immediately resolves himself. They too, hate Eight for simply existing. He half believes that their whole clan will simply ‘erase’ Eight’s memories and then ‘accidently’ leave her somewhere where Eight will die all alone… and with nobody to protect her. They probably _did_ think it would be easier if she did just die somewhere where no chance of secrets could come out.  
Something in him hardens and he vows to protect Eight with all that he could.  
Nobody else saw passed Eight being ‘human’ except him and Mr. Chen Mui… maybe the helper in Chen Mui’s place too (Solo was still unsure of Mr. Jie Ling but he did seem to be almost worried about Eight getting thrown away).  
But still, Solo was the first to care for _**his**_ little sister – the _**first**_ to protect her and love her (apart from Ms. Xia, of course, who defied everyone for the sake of her love and her baby).  
_But it was he, **Solo**_ , who was the first one to see the cute little smile Eight could give to somebody who actually didn’t scorn her. _He_ was the first one who claimed her as family. _He_ was the first one to accept her – the first one to love her.  
_**He**_ would be the one to protect his little sister.  
Even if it meant running away from all that he knew.  
“Meet me outside your house after your Grandpa puts you to bed.”  
She looks up at him suddenly with wide, worried eyes. “Grandpa’s not coming with us?”  
Solo’s insides twist as he lies to her but knows it is necessary. Mr. Chen Mui is, after all, a council elder. He cannot go against the Dragovian Lord nor his fellow elders.  
_But I can! And I’ll do what poor Mr. Chen Mui cannot! I know he’ll support me, even if he can’t come with us or verbally say he supports me!_  
“Your Grandpa’s got to pretend like everything’s okay, Eight. We’ll send him a letter when we’ve left for our exploration and by that time, the council will be nicer and we can come home.”  
Solo knows he’s made the right choice when she doesn’t even question him, fully trusting his words.  
_How could anybody even allow her to go off on her own into the human realm? She’s so young and so trusting…_  
His heart squeezes. _They really **do** want to **let her die**. To kill her. _  
“Okay, I’ll do it.” She hesitates before hugging him and he feels a warm feeling within him.  
He knows he’s made the right decision too, even if he did lie about telling Mr. Chen Mui. He only hopes Chen Mui won’t be too mad.  
_I won’t let anybody hurt you, little one. My little sister._  
________________________________________  
They were caught.  
Solo is in his room, head buried in his hands as he remains silent. There are no tears, only bitter grief and a churning, righteous anger at everyone around him. He promises himself as soon as he can he’ll try again because the look on Eight’s face when everyone started hurling accusations at her made Solo want to scream.  
She looked so devastated and to make matters worse, she wasn’t even allowed to go to Chen Mui. The Dragovian Lord told him to stay where he was and asked everyone to quiet down. He stared at Eight as she stood small and alone in front of the crowd who hated her.  
…and then Solo’s grandpa dragged him away and his parents gave him the biggest ‘we’re-disappointed-in-you’ speech he had ever heard. He was pretty sure they brought in Mr. Chen Mui and his late daughter, Miss Xia, into the conversation and Solo felt a flash of anger that they dared call Eight a huge mistake.  
_Why is everybody so cruel?! You think you can stop me?! Me and Eight are going to run away together! I’ll protect her from everybody who is cruel to her! You aren’t her family… BUT I AM!_  
________________________________________  
He is let out of his room two days later.  
Chen Mui has left the Sanctuary.  
Everybody feels grieved by his decision to abandon them all.  
But Solo feels more than that. He feels betrayed. Because his little sister is gone. She doesn’t exist anymore. Her memories have been erased, her cute little smiles for him never to be again.  
His innocent and lovable little sister… thrown away into the human world with little more than a sweep under the rug way of thinking… thrown out like bad milk.  
_Why didn’t Chen Mui take me with him? I… I was her family too…!_  
He yells at his parents, his own grandfather and anybody who tries talking to him.  
He ignores everybody. He hates **EVERYONE**.  
He lost his little sister and she is somewhere far away right now, alone in the human world without him… or her memories of him.  
His little sister doesn’t exist anymore. There are no memories that make up who she is anymore.  
Something inside him breaks.  
He thinks it might be what faith he has in everyone.  
His little sister had been erased from the world.  
________________________________________  
The child wakes up in a room full of white and nothing makes sense to her.  
“A high fever, malnutrition… The poor thing must’ve been alone for weeks….”  
“No reports of any missing children in the region…”  
“She was so close to dying though… What type of person would lose a child or better yet, abandon a child in the wilderness?!”  
“The heir seems to have taken a liking to the girl though… Always by her bedside…”  
Nothing makes sense and nothing worries her. She is just _**empty**_.  
________________________________________  
Jie Ling invites the fifteen-year-old for tea at Chen Mui’s place. Solo accepts with half-reluctance because it will only remind him of what he’s lost. But he accepts anyway because he would never try and pretend like Eight never existed. She was **his** little sister.  
The one he loved above everything and everyone.  
_The one whom he’d failed to protect._  
But somehow sitting there silently with Jie Ling makes Solo feel less alone and bitter. Because he understood.  
_Eight was half-Dragovian and she was their family. …And they were hers._  
Solo finishes his tea and they agree to meet up again next week. It is a meeting that continues for many a years.  
Until the Dragovian Lord’s ritual to remain permanently in his Dragon form fails.  
Solo, one of the youngest, is the first to be exhausted. He wonders if his little sister ever survived the human realm with Chen Mui looking out for her. The elder never came back so Eight might be alive but…  
_He was a mouse so he could do nothing to actually protect her…_  
If Solo had a chance, he never would have come back either if… If she had died.  
He takes his last breath, still unknowing whether his little sister would greet him when he went to the realm beyond.  
He hoped, despite how selfish that was, that he would see her. Because surely death would take away all spells and enchantments that erased her memory. Surely, he would meet his little sister once more and they would hug and play together, never to be separated again by the cruelty of others.  
His eyes close and somewhere in the distance, he hears a childish laugh full of joy calling out to him. His body relaxes, the pain fades away. A nightmare finally ends.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked the story - I would love a review :D  
> There are too few Dragon Quest VIII stories out there exploring the Hero's past or future with the Dragovian Race.


End file.
